Mayflower fears raised a year ago

Thursday 8 April 2004 17:31 BST

CONCERNS over the Mayflower board were raised more than a year ago by corporate governance body Pirc.

The bus-maker, which went into administration last week, was singled out because there were no independent non-executive directors on the board, executive directors were on two-year contracts and remuneration policies had the potential to deliver excessive rewards.

A £20m hole was found in the TransBus subsidiary last week - compounding its debt problem - and three executives were ousted, including chief executive John Simpson.

Administrator Deloitte has now encountered the wrath of Amicus and the Transport and General Workers' unions, which condemned the sacking of almost 300 TransBus workers.